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Narelle Clay, CEO of Southern Youth and Family Services, spoke to Crossfire in December 2008 after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced The Road Home, an initiative to decrease the nations homeless population by the year 2020.

More than 100 000 Australians sleep without secure housing.

Narelle Clay joined Crossfire to discuss the on-going problems and whether the economic down turn has meant more people are asking for help.

The Butterfly Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation founded by Claire Vickery to help Australians with eating disorders.

The foundation has recently been granted $500 000 by the Rudd government to organise and head a collaborated project of all Australian research and health clinics who work towards a solution for eating disorders.

Claire Vickery took the time to speak to Crossfire and explain more about the issues surrounding eating disorders and how solutions can be found and put to work.

Hundreds of people wandered through the maze of colour, ink, needles and piercings over the weekend at the Sydney Tattoo & Body Art Expo.

155 artists from Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia and other worldy body art arenas came to compete and showcase their works at Sydney Showground to the hardcore tattoo fans of Sydney.

Burried among the booths of coloured skulls and tongue rings was a different kind of tattooist. Val Glover-Hovan is cosmetic tattoo specialist and educator who has been colouring the lips and eyes of men and women since 1985.

‘Wake up with Make up’ is the slogan ot booth 88 at the three day expo, and at Vals’ studio in Sydney where she consults and tattoos clients needing everything from eyebrows to medical scars covered up. The trend is popular and growing, but also an unusual one to those who may not ever have considered taking such an extreme measure to have permanent make up.

The drowning of a 56 year old Kirawee man at Austinmer Beach last week has sparked debate about whether lifeguard patrol hours during the Summer season are sufficient. The man died of a heart attack whilst bodyboarding at 6:30pm only half an hour after lifeguards left the beach. The equipment which would have been used to save the man was locked in Austinmer Surf Club only metres from where the man drowned. Ambulance arrived at the scene a short time after but were unable to save revive the victim. This incident comes only a month after the drowning of a man at Bombo Beach.

Wollongong City Council will take on 10 long-awaiting projects after receiving Federal funding last week. The grant will go towards infrastructure programs in the region including disabled access for the Continental Pool and Illawarra Performing Art Centre. The funding will also go towards a new building fro the storage of lifeguard rescue equipment at Stanwell Park Beach, footpath improvements and Belmore Basin and Flagstaff Hill and a playground in the Civic Plaza. The sporting fields in the Illawarra also received funding for projects as Reed Park at Dapto, Darcy Wentworth Park in Warrawong and Rex Jackson Park at Helensburgh. Security improvements at Dapto Mall have also benefited from the Federal Government grant. The projects are set to begin in February this year.

Jacqui here, just thought I’d say hi from the Indonesian city of Jakarta will I have been for the past two days and will be for the next seven weeks doing a journalism internship.
Happy New Year.
Jacqui

On Friday the Federal government officially announced a $4.7 billion Nation Building Package focused on infrastructure. The investments are another economic crisis combat tool from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Government.

The package will be divided between road, rail and education infrastructure; in many cases bringing already approved and future projects forward. Tax changes for Australian businesses will also be implemented.

$1.2 billion of the package will be put into the nation’s rail network. $580 million of that will go towards the railway connecting the Hunter Valley coal mines and Newcastle Port.

$711 million will be put towards road construction and improvement projects and will push funding for the Black Spot Program to $110 million from $50 million.

Four NSW road projects have been fast tracked in the package. The Woomargama Bypass and Tarcutta Bypass on the Hume Highway and the Bulahdelah Bypass and Sexton’s Hill, Banora Point projects on the Pacific Highway.

No funding has been put towards the Princess Highway and local Liberal members have criticized this decision by the federal government.

In education, $1.6 billion will be invested in Universities and TAFE’s nation wide. The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard announced a new Teaching and Learning Capital Fund for Higher Education which will inject $500 million into universities.

NSW universities will receive $153 million of this fund; Wollongong University is to receive $10.1 million. Wollongong University will also receive its already secured $35 million from the Higher Education Endowment Fund for the SMART Infrastructure facility (Simulation, Modeling, and Analysis for Research and Teaching).

$500 million will also be delivered to public skills and training through The Teaching and Learning Capital Fund for Vocational Education and Training.

Questions have been raised by the federal opposition about the possibility of the budget being dimished and put into deificit by Mr Rudd’s investments and rescue packages. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull described last weeks cash handouts as a “sugar hit” and suggested that tax cuts would have been the better defence against recession.

Kevin Rudd says this latest national investment package will not put the budget into deficit.